Victoria

[windbourne]

Graceful vanilla musk, tea rose, and stargazer lily.

Wet, I could barely smell it at all. As it dried, it became more pronounced -- a sweet white floral that very neatly encompassed the sum of its parts. It's soft, pretty, feminine, and only the vanilla saves it from being a mere whisper.

My skin ate it up in two bites, and it was gone in ten minutes, leaving behind only a hint of sweetness and lilies.

It's quite a lovely scent, and vehemently not a 'me' scent at all. I'll pass my imp on to someone who will love it more.

[Indigo78]

In the imp: Innocent and prim, Victoria captures the essence of every man's untouchable desire in her youth. Wow... that's a lot of rose, backed with some softer breaths of other things I can't discern.

 

Wet, on skin: Not changing much. The roses in this blend seem to be blooming for the first time, and I think this imagery comes about because of the Lily.

 

Drydown: The roses continue to be crisp and new. This isn't how I imagine the drooping, ripe red roses of some other sweeter, heavier blends. There is no sweet, just a girl tiptoeing through adolescence, softly saying "Look. I am blooming. In the standard, proper, perfect way."

 

Nothing deviant at all. Not me, I will probably keep the imp. After all, certain scenarios. demand somthing inconspicuous and low key.

Edited May 23, 2008 by Indig0

[nekogrrl]

I really wanted to like this scent. However, this reminds me of something an old lady would wear. The rose and lily are cloying, and had a decent throw on me, so I really smelled like someone who just douses herself in perfume, and doesn't realise she's trailing scent miasmas that will bitch-slap you like whoah. I didn't smell any vanilla at all.

 

This is going on the swap pile.

[Mamacat]

This is the first BPAL rose that I actually want a bottle of. It is such a soft rose and somehow doesn't amp up on me the way other rose blends do. On me it smells very girly and sweet. The lily (I usuallly can't wear that one either) seems to be keeping the rose in check and the vanilla musk adds a lovely base that makes Victoria very innocent. I really love it. This is coming from a regular rose hater.

[moon_lemming]

Pretty, but waaaaay too innocent for me. Sweet dainty tea rose on a quiet, sweet vanilla base. The lily is smart and doesn't show up because it knows I would beat it down with a broom.

 

Did I mention sweet? Too sweet and naive for my tastes. There is nothing about Victoria that's BAD, it's just... not me.

Edited June 18, 2008 by karen

[Magpie]

This is a pretty, light, understated floral, very sweet, perky and gentle.

 

It is also another casualty in my constant quest to find a rose scent that doesn't become candy on me, because tea rose is fairly candy-like to start off with. Out of all the rose scents that have become almost sickly sweet on me, however, this is my favourite. The vanilla musk is a lovely addition that deepens the scent a little and the lily is absolutely beautiful on the few occasions it peeked out.

 

It is lovely, light and not too obvious, and it pretty much lasted most of the day for me.

 

I'm not sure that Victoria Forester is not a bit more sophisticated (or likes to think she is) than this scent suggests, but it is a sweet little thing and will probably remain in my box.

[TeaLeaf]

I love to sniff this one. As many others have said it is just too innocent for me to wear.

[rayvn1]

This is another example of how I'll never stray from BPAL because they make scents that just shouldn't work on me, but magically do! Lovely innocent vanilla with enough spice and sensual rose to suggest a real woman

[Christine Daae]

Straight out of the decant, this is a sharp, sourish rose. :\ Rose can either be reaaally good on me, or reaaally bad. I hope this is good, I have such hopes for these notes to be pretty!

 

On my skin, the sourness fades to a soapiness – it’s a clean, floral soap smell. It’s not offensively soapy – and I don’t mind a bit of soapiness, to be honest – but it’s still soapy.

 

The vanilla musk starts to come out a little bit, and it takes the edge off of the soapiness so that this is just a gentle, powdery rose. I am glad that I got to try this, because it means I won’t be longing for it anymore – it’s pretty, but it’s not spectacular on me.

[the_cat_goddess]

In the vial: Sweetened vinegar?

 

Wet: Okay, I get a little rose over the burned plastic meets vinegar scent. Please let this get better, because it couldn't get much worse. Sniffing again, I get nail salon with and rose water. As it's drying, the rose is coming out more, thank goodness. Either pink or white rose. Definitely not red or yellow.

Looking at the notes now, I'm thinking the unpleasantness must be stargazer lily.

 

Drydown: I'm still getting that plasticy yuckness, but only from sniffing within 3 inches. 4 inches out I get a creamy, soft rose and I can tell the vanilla musk is helping.

 

Overall: I had gotten a little bit of this on my skin a couple days ago and the next morning I could not believe how great that spot smelled. So I know this is goign to smell better later.

 

I finished typing that, went back to sniff, and the plastic is gone! Now I have beautiful, soft rose-scented skin. Lovely!

[Czarina]

In the imp: roses.

Wet: roses and musk.

Drydown: roses.

 

Lilies nowhere in evidence.

 

Nice, but not for me.

[Suu4LC]

Hmmm. Very delicate and lovely in the imp. On first sniff, the rose in this is very strong. I enjoy the smell of rose, it just is a note that almost never works well on my skin.

 

You know, the rose actually seems to be behaving on my skin! Hints of lily are peeking out, and even better, the vanilla musk is really coming to the forefront, and keeping the rose from going sour, as it tends to do on me! I need to give this a bit more time to settle, but I think this is the most wearable bpal rose I have ever tried!

 

Yep, love this! So beautiful and classy! Such a perfect soft vanilla musk/rose that wafts gracefully and never gets too sour or rose heavy! Will add this to the bottle list!

Edited November 11, 2008 by Suu4LC

[obsidienne]

This perfume smells like a sophisticated but youthful lady. It is gorgeous warm vanilla musk, with the tea rose and lily beneath, adding depth and beauty. As it develops, the florals come more to the fore and it becomes much more floral and "perfumey", which is not exactly to my taste. After a while, the florals and the musk became a hint sharp, which was a bit sad. The vanilla maintains throughout, but to varying degrees, generally lightening up as the blend develops. Decent lasting power, medium throw. I'll have to wear this more often to be able to tell if it's an ongoing affair, however.

 

Edit: I don't know if this is due to its age (I bought this off the forums so I have no idea how old it is, but it's been over 6 months since my initial review), but this perfume has gotten much better with time! It's still quite floral, but the vanilla musk seems a bit stronger and fuller, giving it a warmth and depth that I think this lacked the first time I tried it. So, just fyi: it might be worth aging this a bit if you don't like it the first time. After today, I'm now leaning towards a bottle of Victoria.

Edited July 8, 2009 by obsidienne

[SgtWidget]

Victoria is making me flail. A lot. I'm a big rose fan, but I was kind of worried about the lily note in this. My fears proved totally unfounded. I adore Victoria. The rose is far and away the dominant scent here, but while I can't pick out the lily per se, I can tell that there's something else lurking under the rose. My nose is glued to my wrist and I won't be able to get a bottle of this soon enough.

[Ceri]

In the vial: It reminds me of the potpourri my mum used to place around our apartment. Potpourri with creamy vanilla peeking out underneath.

 

Wet: The potpourri fades and it gets greener by the minute.

 

Drydown: The potpourri is back in full force! All I get now is powdery potpourri.

 

Overall: Potpourri makes me sneeze...this scent is not for me.

Edited February 2, 2009 by Ceri

[amanderinorange]

I was excited to try this as I have heard good things about all the Stardust blends and I LOVE Fairy Market. Plus I like vanilla, tea roses and stargazer lilies are my favorite.

 

In the bottle: lovely, light tea rose with a hint of the stargazer lily. No vanilla, but that's alright.

 

On me: right away, baby powder. OH NOES! I was trying to recover this as I was headed to the dentist and didn't want them being like, "who's wearing the baby powder and why so much?" because really, it was a heavy baby powder scent. Luckily, I received a frimp of Black Lily and decided to put it on as well. It actually saved it a bit. Still baby powder, but with a heavier lily to ground it.

 

Overall: I'm super-dissapointed that this didn't work on me, but I still love it in the bottle. Maybe it would be good to scent other things with?

[aquazoo]

Rose rose rose! This is a soft one.

[Limelight]

When I first put this on, I thought, "Dang, this is the best soap I've ever smelled." After a little while, the rose and lily start to work together in a beguiling way. A little musk as a backdrop. I think I could stand having a bottle.

[naeelah]

This is a very simple, innocent, peaches-and-cream type scent.

 

The vanilla musk here is almost definitely a white musk (not the same vanilla musk that's in Black Lace). Unfortunately, white musk often means soap for me. Many people try rose blends and think "soap." I am not one of those people, but this is honestly what Victoria smelled like on me. Rose soap.

 

If white musk and tea rose agree with your skin, though, this is a perfect light, youthful pink rose scent. Excellent for anyone who tends to regard rose as too mature. The lily is present but I never really guessed it was there. It blends well with the other notes.

 

Wet, this is mainly rose and lily with white musk. As it wears, some of the bright, soapy edge burns away and it becomes a little richer and creamier. The vanilla is light and not very sweet, very much like fresh cream.

 

And that's really it. Airy pink rose with a dollop of cream. Wear life and sillage are both good.

 

Compared to similar blends, this is very much less sweet and rich than the Gaoler's Daughter, and brighter than Katrina van Tassel.

[lishal]

Lily and rose are really well blended in this scent and they work very well with the vanilla. Usually, rose will amp up on me and make it near impossible to smell anything else but in Victoria, it's a gentle floral backing to a very delicate, very girly lily scent with a just a touch of vanilla to round it all out. Victoria is a pretty light scent though and the lily and vanilla sort of disappeared on me and rose started coming up during the scent's last few hours.

[angelicruin]

Sniffing the imp, it's a very light creamy floral scent.

 

Wet on the skin, roses and lilies with a light creamy quality.

 

Dries down to mostly rose and light musk.

[topazphoenix]

Soft yet rather prim musk and florals with a sweet vanilla undertone. Ladylike. It's a rather pale scent, and the overall effect reminds me a lot of Mouse's Long and Sad Tale.

[sarajane]

I didn't get any rose or lily out of these, sadly. Just an overwhelming, soapy light rose on my skin. Gorgeous in the bottle, though.

[Evilynn]

In the vial: Tea rose and vanilla musk

Wet on the skin: tea rose and lily on a bed of vanilla musk. This is really rather pretty in its simplicity.

Drydown: tea rose and a hint of vanilla musk. Simple and pretty. Good throw, long lasting on my skin.

 

Tea rose is the only BPAL rose that seems to work on me, and I've been hoarding a couple of imps of London for years, but I think I like Victoria better. I don't know if I need a bottle yet, but I'm definitely keeping my decant.

If you like London you'll definitely like this!

 

3.5-4

[TheIceMaiden]

The ladies of Stardust have been very good to me as Victoria, Yvaine, and Lady Una are three of my favourite scents in the General Catalogue. Anyway! Victoria is mainly a stargazer lily scent on me with a soft rose and light musk base. I don't get much in the way of vanilla. The throw and staying power of this is pretty good as well!